
Community Habilitation Specialist
Part-timeSuffolk County, NYPart-time / Full-time$19.55/hrSeen 8mo agoSeen in employer's feed 2 days ago
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At a glance
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Job overview
YAI seeks a Community Habilitation Specialist to provide one-on-one support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Long Island. The role focuses on teaching life skills, offering recreational opportunities, and promoting community integration, independence, and fulfilling lives. Staff support people in community and in-home settings and help implement person-centered plans.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Benefits
Full job description
Suffolk County
Nassau County
R016554
If you are a current YAI employee, please click this link to apply through your Workday account. (http://wd5.myworkday.com/wday/authgwy/yai/login.htmld?)
About the Position:
YAI is seeking a creative, passionate, and highly motivated professional for our Community Habilitation services in Long Island.
As a Community Habilitation staff member, you will be providing one-on-one supports to people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). You will play an integral role in teaching various life skills while providing recreational opportunities to promote community integration. The goal of this program is to empower the people we support to maximize independence and live fulfilling lives.
YAI's Mission:
Ready to join our 4,000+ employees in a career at YAI?
Working at YAI means effecting real change in people's lives. It means going home at the end of the day knowing you have helped someone accomplish a goal. If you want a career supporting others, creatively finding solutions to life's challenges, and building a more inclusive community, YAI is the place for you!
Join us in our mission to create opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live, love, work, and learn in their communities. Learn more at yai.org/careers.
Key Responsibilities:
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Adhering to policies, procedures and regulations.
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Using effective communication skills & time management skills
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Regularly providing one-to-one supports in community and in-home settings.
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Completing mandatory trainings based on the program and position (AMAP, CPR/First Aid, SCIP-R, Defensive Driving, etc.), as well as applying skills.
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Meeting and demonstrating OPWDD Core Competencies.
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Ensuring health, wellness and safety by managing crisis situations and providing appropriate supervision of the people we support.
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Demonstrating a willingness to assist people with ADLs.
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Transporting and escorting people we support on recreational activities, medical appointment, home visits, etc.
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Building Positive relationships.
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Maintaining a therapeutic environment through a variety of methods: Personal Outcome Measures, Person Centered Thinking, Informed Decision Making.
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Ensuring person centered plans are implemented.
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Completing documentation to ensure compliance and billing.
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Using foundational Teaching skills (EMOE, Task analysis, essential skills, supports and modifications, etc.
Education and Experience:
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High School Diploma or GED preferred
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Work or life experience within the intellectual/developmental disabilities field is a plus
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Ability to support people with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
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Basic written and verbal communication.
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Basic computer knowledge.
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Valid Driver's License may be required depending upon the position.
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Tuberculosis test mandatory for most positions
Additional Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
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Interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
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Willingness to take initiative
Schedule:
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Flexible; 16-20 hours/week for Part time positions
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40 hours/week for Full time positions
Benefits:
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DailyPay available - Work today, get paid today!
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Tuition reimbursement
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Medical and dental insurance - with options for family and more extensive medical plans, as well as vision (for Full time positions)
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Paid vacation, holiday, and sick time (depending on time type)
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Retirement Plan with employer matching contributions
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Life insurance and long-term disability
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Discounts on travel, entertainment, wireless services, shopping, and more. Check out our benefits page to learn more!
Compensation:
- $19.55/hour
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or status as a Vietnam or disabled veteran. YAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
To ensure fairness, safeguard transparency, and promote an equitable workforce environment, YAI Network prohibits the practice of nepotism in the workforce and hiring process.
Our Roots
YAI was launched in February of 1957 out of a small school in Brooklyn, New York. Initially staffed by Co-Founders Bert MacLeech and Pearl Maze MacLeech alone, their pilot program served just seven people. According to Bert, from its very beginning YAI has been dedicated to providing innovative services for the I/DD (intellectual and/or developmental disabilities) community. MacLeech envisioned a, “total life adjustment approach, emphasizing personal growth, social responsibility, employment goals, and the development of independence for the individual.” At a time when institutional living was the norm for people with I/DD, this vision was nothing short of revolutionary.
YAI Today
Today, YAI has a team of over 4,000 employees and supports over 20,000 people in the I/DD community. This extraordinary growth shows the ongoing need for these important services, and YAI’s success in offering them. YAI supports people with autism, Down syndrome, and Cerebral Palsy, among others. Operating throughout Downstate New York and Northern New Jersey, YAI now offers more than 300 programs for people of all ages.
Better Together
At YAI, we are driven by our mission of living, loving, working, and learning. This applies not only to the people we support, but to our staff as well. Commitment and passion for the work continue to unite employees and drive the organization forward. Empowering the people we support to reach their goals remains at the heart of our organization.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or status as a Vietnam or disabled veteran. YAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
To ensure fairness, safeguard transparency, and promote an equitable workforce environment, YAI Network prohibits the practice of nepotism in the workforce and hiring process.
How this job compares
Set against the 2,075 open Direct Support Professional jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 4, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$19.55/hr
- New York median$19–20/hr704 hourly ranges
- US median$18–19/hr1,708 hourly ranges
This rate, $19.55/hr, is close to the New York median midpoint ($19/hr) — in the middle half of Direct Support Professional hourly ranges in New York.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 728 open Direct Support Professional jobs in New York and 2,075 across the US. Under 1% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Hiring the most in New York
- YAI (this employer)213 open
- The Arc Mid-Hudson174 open
- WellLife Network39 open
- Experience
- Direct Support Professional postings that state a minimum ask for 1 year of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 1 to 2 years (399 postings).
- Education
- 20 of the 2,075 open Direct Support Professional jobs (under 1%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 4, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.
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